Horror upon Horrors Lamentations 2:20

Jeremiah has told of horrific events that occurred to Jerusalem in his lament about them. Men, women, young and old were affected by the devastation inflicted by the Babylonian destruction, and even the walls of the city were called upon to weep over their conditions. In chapter two and verse twenty even more graphic events which are nearly unspeakable were endured by the people of the land. We read:

Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom you have done this. Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long? shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?

The verse begins, “Behold, O LORD, and consider to whom you have done this.” In a desperate appeal to the “LORD” - “Jehovah”, Jeremiah said “Behold” which means “look at, inspect or perceive” and “consider” or “regard, pay attention to” the ones “whom you have done this”. In other words, Jeremiah said that God was the source of the people's troubles. Rather than looking upon themselves as the reason for the devastation, Jeremiah puts the responsibility upon God.

The verse goes on to say, “Shall the women eat their fruit, and children of a span long?” In addition to Jeremiah's emotional appeal for God to look upon them, he questions God for an abhorrent behavior of the women within the city – they were eating their premature children “their fruit” and “children of a span long”. Their hunger was so great that they ate their own babies, and when the children were born they were only “a span long” which was about the length between the end of the thumb to the end of the small finger upon an average sized hand. Can there be anything so horrific as this?

Finally the verse says, “shall the priest and the prophet be slain in the sanctuary of the Lord?” Along with the terrible state of women eating their own children, Jeremiah continues his question and appeal to the LORD by asking “shall the priest and prophet” or “those who lead in the spiritual matters” of the city “be slain” which means “killed, murdered, destroyed or ruined”? And as though their execution and massacre were not enough, they were murdered “in the sanctuary of the Lord”. Not even the temple of the Lord was sacred when Jeremiah saw the priest and prophet killed there. No wonder Jeremiah turned his attention toward the Lord at this point in his book. The events before his eyes were too much for anyone to endure.

Have we ever experienced such horror as this one of which Jeremiah speaks? Have we endured seeing mothers go to this cannibalistic extent? Have we ever seen such terrible conditions within the church? Maybe as we think about these substantial examples of affliction that was brought upon Jerusalem we will measure our own “troubles” against them and look toward the Lord Jesus and His grace as He has saved us thus far from such “horror of horrors” like unto these.

Next time we see what happened to the young people who were in Jerusalem, so read ahead, and we shall join together then.

 

Until tomorrow...there is more...

 

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